Adventures in Nepal

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Monthly Archives: November 2013

Creativity has been eluding me lately, especially as I am lying here in bed, sick with an undetermined sickness. It could be food poisoning, it could be a flu… whatever it is, it’s not pleasant, and I have no desire to type long, humorous post. So I am leaving you with some photos snapped around the city.

Nice color…

Tight squeeze, don’t you think?

Momo anyone?

Just another house

Actually looks clean…

At the car mechanic – for your pleasure…

At the car mechanic – having the sign shows some environmental awareness, no?

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After writing many posts on funny things in Nepal, as well as those things that I cannot, ummm how should I put it nicely, stand, I figured it was time for me to write about something I like here. There should be such things, no? After all, I moved here by my own choice. So here it goes. Things I like about Nepal.

First place, without a doubt, goes to the weather. Let’s face it. Weather in Kathmandu is gorgeous, all year round. Sure, you need to learn how to handle the rain in summer months, but seriously, who minds getting rained on when it’s hot outside. Getting rained on is like a breath of fresh air. For the rest of the year sun is out every day. Every single day. It gets a bit cold in winter. But what’s taking a shower in an 8°C bathroom in comparison with seeing the sun every day for almost 8 months in a year? So yeah, weather, gorgeous.

It might be a total cliche, but I cannot not mention the historical sights. Kathmandu might be dirty and polluted and crowded and crazy and all kinds of things. But the sights you can see are amazing. If you start from Patan and move through Kathmandu Durbar Square, Swayambhunath and Boudhanath all the way to Bhaktapur, trust me, you’ll be hooked for life. These places are rockin’. And the best part about all of them – they’re not just tourist sights that are there to be photographed and not to be touched. People actually live there, in them , around them and with them. It’s an amazing sight. My favorite? Boudhanath. It’s a place like no other. Not to be missed.

Zagreb might be trying real hard to be a cosmopolitan city, and in many regards it definitely is, but what’s missing there is a diverse restaurant scene. Kathmandu had me amazed with its variety of restaurants and food. It’s a never ending exploring out here. We’ve been to so many places already, but it feels like we haven’t even tackled into a vast restaurant pool in Kathmandu. I love it! Indian, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Nepali, American, Spanish… Anything you wish for can be found in Kathmandu. Isn’t that just perfect?

And last, but not the least, mornings are what I enjoy tremendously in Nepal! Yes, there is an annoying sweeping lady outside my window every day at 6 am. And yes, the dirty pigeons are making horrible cooing sounds, but once I get out of bed, open the curtains and look outside, I am stunned. The sky is of a blue shade that I’ve never seen in my life. Sun is glistening on the surrounding hills, and snow-covered mountain tops are visible in the background. Kids are playing on the rooftops, their laughter carrying across the neighborhood. Bells can be heard in almost every house making everything seem magical. It’s impossible not to love this place!

Ignore neighbor’s laundry and focus on the beautiful mountain tops in the distance.

Have you ever watched that Hitchcock’s movie “The Birds”? No? Don’t even bother. Just come to Kathmandu and you’ll have a horror movie of your own. Birds are everywhere. E-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e! My office is conveniently situated next to a large tree which houses, what sounds like, hundreds of crows. All day long they jump on the roof producing a horrible scratching sound with their claws, at the same time making a terrible cawing sound. Crows are not cute birds to have around. They remind me of death, which is actually horrible, because I’m surrounded by them all day every day. It definitely does not send a comforting message. I can, however, live with the crows and their god-awful sounds. Even when they eat a dead pigeon on the roof of my office. That actually happened, yup. The birds I definitely cannot stand are the rats of the bird world – pigeons. I hate pigeons. Truly and honestly hate them. You’re probably think I’m an animal hater, all the way. Au contraire, my reader, au contraire. I am an animal lover. I might be scared of most of the animals, but I certainly love them. Pigeons, however, are a completely different story. First of all, they have this ability of dirtying everything up in just one day. They stink and their feathers appear randomly all over the place. Secondly, the sound they make is the most annoying morning alarm I have ever had in my life.

I find it a tiny bit disturbing that I got this photo from gourmet.com.

For whatever reason, a significant number of pigeons has decided our house would be a good place to live and procreate. They used up every possible nook and cranny to set up their nests and live a comfortable life. At first I was not even paying attention to them, as there were only a few and they didn’t make much noise or dirt. But then, all of their cousins decided to move to our place too. Suddenly, I was waking up to cooing outside the window, pigeon feathers on the floor and a horrible stench. That’s when I lost it. Mr.B. was sent head-first into the fight. Armed with a stick, he shooed all the birds away, and then the outer wall was washed from all the pigeon dirt. Such a relief. Which unfortunately, didn’t last for too long. Pigeons keep coming back, in a smaller number though, and one of my daily tasks is to bang on the window to scare them away. But they are one fearless bunch. And they creep me out so much. How does one get rid of these annoying flying rats?